Gnarly Trombone: Who needs meddling reporters?

Well, it's about time someone did something about those darn reporters!

It came out in a Colorado online magazine this week about a secret meeting some of our state leaders had in Denver, where they decided they want to add a 1 percent tax for us, so we can pay off the road, street and highway repairs.

We don't know which politicians attended the secret meeting, because they won't tell us. It's a secret.

Someone found out the Former Greeley Mayor was on the phone at the meeting, so a reporter asked him about it.

Our former Mayor, Tom Norton, was invited to listen in and participate in the secret meeting because he was once the Director of the Colorado Department of Transportation. He also was our mayor at the time.

Anyway, because it was a secret meeting, nobody wanted to talk about it after the meeting, and the press wasn't invited. When asked about it, this is what our former mayor said, according to Colorado Politics:

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"When you have a reporter in the room, you can't talk," he said, raising his voice. "All (reporters) want is to raise hell and to make somebody look bad in their newspapers … and sell newspapers. That's not how you get things done."

Well, it's about time somebody put those darn reporters in their place.

That's all they do, you know? Go out there, attend meetings, ask questions and then TELL EVERYBODY.

Like it's their business to know what's happening at meetings where our elected officials are trying to keep things secret.

Those darn newspaper people believe in that antiquated Sunshine Law, which states elected officials aren't supposed to make decisions in secret.

Silly Sunshine Law.

So, we need to get rid of all those reporters, so our elected people won't be bothered by them.

We can get all of our news on Facebook, from notes sent out by our politicians or press conferences. Without the press, of course.

Facebook is where the "Real News" is, anyway. We all know that.

Oh, that will be a wonderful day when our elected people can just go out and make new laws, raise new taxes, close up businesses and all that other good stuff — without bothering to tell us.

And then the next day, when we break a new law we didn't know about or pay a tax we didn't know we had, everyone will be happy.

Soon, we won't need those dumb voters, either.

— The name Gnarly Trombone was taken from an 1871 Cincinnati newspaper that misread Horace Greeley's handwritten name of the Greeley Tribune. Mike Peters is a retired Tribune staff writer. He may be emailed at mpeters26@comcast.net.